BOOK REVIEW

Watching, from the edge of extinction

by B.P. Stearns and S.C. Stearns (1999, Yale University Press).

Wild Plants of Shenzhen, China

by Xing Fuwu and Yu Ming’en ( 2000, China Forestry Publishing House).

Watching, from the edge of extinction

by B.P. Stearns and S.C. Stearns (1999, Yale University Press).

All this to say that any book with ‘S.C. Stearns’ on the spine is worthy of your attention. This volume is co-written with Bev Stearns, a professional journalist, and she lends the book a pacey, easy - to - read style. " Extinction is real – and it lasts forever." This, the first sentence, gives a hint of what to expect and, in places, it is quite page-turning in an airport thrillerish kind of way. (Sort of Hannibal Lecter meets Gerald Durrell if you know what I mean.) Watching– tells a number of stories of people who have seen species slip towards, or over the edge of, extinction. The authors show how humans who work with endangered species deal with what sometimes appears to be the inevitability of extinction, often resulting in the need for action which, in many cases, consumes their lives. There is more in this book than the recital of scientific facts, as these "– are stories of love and passion, dedication and wisdom, life and death –" (pg. xii). But also they are also stories of principled people encountering politics, greed, corruption, folly and hypocrisy - features that are manifest in some of the scientists and conservation organisations portrayed in this book. There is much about professional skull - duggery, jealousy and academic vanity – conservationists are not saints.

The book consists of a series of stories (OK, case studies if you must) of conservation successes or failures. Each reveals something profound about biodiversity and the action we should or ( more surprisingly ) should not take in order to preserve it. The authors use many direct quotes from conservationists allowing them to tell the stories in their own words. This gives each chapter a distinct flavour, because the passion and speech idiosyncrasies of workers for whom English is a second language is allowed to shine through. There are two chapters on Hawaiian birds, and others on land snails, Chimpanzees, butterflies, Monk seals, Lake Victoria’s endemic cichlid fishes, Wild dogs, Salamanders, the fauna and flora of Mauritius and Rodrigues, and the history (and elimination) of Gibbons (Hylobates agilis) in China. (Incidentally, this species would once have called from the Hong Kong treetops.) A concluding section (‘lessons learned’), a useful bibliography and an excellent index complete the book. The scope is wide, and the people that are interviewed are varied in background, training and affiliation. Other examples could have been chosen (there isn’t much about plants, and South America does not get a look in), but completeness is not essential and these stories reveal a great deal. For example, the fact that conservation action may actually contribute to the decline of a species (as in stories about Wild dogs, the Monk seal, and the Hawaiian crow) because human motivations are often mixed or muddled. There are particularly striking accounts of what happens when there is a conflict between the need to collect publishable data and the damaging consequences for endangered animals during the collection of such data. (The scientists come out of this rather badly in a two such instances.) Some of the case studies also show that competent people are in short supply, so many endangered species do not meet with the best that humanity has to offer. Some scientists or conservationists are well meaning but foolish; others are lazy or even corrupt. However, there are plenty of the usual suspects here too: devious politicians, scheming greedy developers, and incompetent government officials. In that context, the tale of the Barton Springs salamander of Austin, Texas, has all of the characters well known to us from conservation battles in Hong Kong. (At first glance I thought this chapter was allegorical.)

Other important messages in Watching–are the fact that most scientists do not make good lobbyists: we are not effective advocates and tend to equivocate or qualify our remarks; developers and industrialists are trained to exaggerate their position and speak with certainly. Another is the point that some endangered species will never be able to persist without constant management; in IUCN terminology, they are conservation-dependent. The endemic birds of Mauritius are a case in point, which has important implications for changes in government priorities, soft money, and sustainability. Clearly, it will be extremely important for us (and governments) to determine our priorities and hold them in the long (really long) term. But what are our priorities? Can we get along with fewer species? Is it enough to see tigers in zoos, museums, or on videotape (or digital- whatsits) rather than in the wild? If you reckon the answer is ‘yes’, then you must carry the responsibility for that conscious decision not to do anything. Fair enough (and may you roast for eternity). But if wild plants and animals do matter to you, yet you remain apathetic and fail to do anything to preserve them, you allow developers and others who exploit nature become rich and steal irreplaceable species and habitats from you, your children, and future generations. Ignorance may be no excuse but, as the authors stress, informed apathy is worse.

The final messages of this book are, I am afraid, rather familiar – " –the long term solution is to have fewer people, and for those people to consume less ..." (pg. 243) – combined with a plea to think about the consequences of development. Erm, yes, but how can that be translated into action now? OK, there are no miracle cures, and it is perhaps unfair of me to expect this book to provide them. However, because Watching– is so good and, it seems to me, so true to life, my immediate reaction is ‘What the hell can we do about this?’ It is sobering to reflect on the last pages that describe a hike by senior citizens through forests and alpine meadows in Switzerland. The good burghers enjoy the outdoors, and enthuse over the many varieties of wildflowers they encounter. These people have all the benefits of development, and the high income and leisure time to appreciate the countryside. But what is left in this country that gives its people such economic security? The bears, wolves, and otters that once roamed the land are gone. Nature reserves in Switzerland are now defined on the basis of beetles and flowers. Does any of this sound familiar?

David Dudgeon

P.28-29

Wild Plants of Shenzhen, China

by Xing Fuwu and Yu Ming’en ( 2000, China Forestry Publishing House).

Although this book is focused on the flora of Shenzhen, it is also very useful for studying wild plants in Hong Kong, because all but 15 of the 724 plant species illustrated have been recorded here. In addition to including most of our locally common woody plants, it also covers many locally rare and very rare species (e.g. Oleandra cumingii, Amentotaxus argotaenia, Machilus leptophyllus, Stemona tuberosa), thus making it more useful for local field botanists. Among the species illustrated, there are also a number of the plants which were first found in Hong Kong only recently (e.g. Popowia pisocarpa, Macaranga auriculata, Combretum alferdii, Cyclobalanopsis hui, Meliosma thorelii, and Dictyospermum scaberrimum). Compared to its rich collection of dicot flowering plants and orchids, the book is, however, relatively weak for other monocots, especially for the highly species rich but boring-looking Cyperaceae and Poaceae.

Although (or, perhaps, because) William Xing is not a professional photographer, his photographs are good enough for field identification. The descriptions are, unfortunately, all in Chinese, and too brief and simplified for detailed study, but this is inevitable given the large number of species included. Differences in the scientific names used between this book and earlier publications are unavoidable and I suggest the reader refers to the Flora of China Website (http://mobot.mobot.org/W3T/Search/foc.html) for conversion of names.

A little surprising, although not totally unexpected, was the discovery of a few of Hong Kong’s globally very rare species in Shenzhen, including Rhododendron hongkongense, Camellia granthamiana, and Boeica guileana. In fact, given the proximity of Shenzhen to Hong Kong, it is likely the 15 species that have been found in Shenzhen but not in Hong Kong will one day be discovered here, among them perhaps the globally rare Cycas fairylakea.

Ng Sai Chit

P.27